Le Gavroche review by Clare Humanski
On Saturday 1st March 2008 my husband and I along with two other couples went along to Le Gavroche, we were very excited and couldn't wait to sample, the food, atmosphere and wine!
Apon arrival we decided to head straight downstairs to our table, once seated we were then asked if we would like an apperitif, the men at our table ordered first, and then one of my girlfriends asked if she could see the champagne menu for us girls, there seemed to be some confusion about this, but eventually a wine menu was brought out for her. She tried to ask the sommelier for advice on what would be a nice choice, but he said he was sorry but he couldn't speak english!
Anyway we chose and enjoyed a lovely pink champagne.
All bar one of us wanted to order the Menu Exceptionnel, thankfully this wasn't too much of a problem as the Manager said he would make an exception on this occasion, ordinarily the whole table would order this menu.
I have to say as the courses started coming out, the food was delicious, perfectly cooked and presented beautifully.
We had the wine chosen for us for each course by the sommelier, it was somewhat frustrating that he couldn't speak english, we wanted to ask about the wine but he just either misunderstood us or looked very flustered and kept reminding us he didn't speak english.
We are very easy going people, and we were all gracious and smiling and trying to put the servers at ease, but they were so stoneyfaced and unfriendly, they hardly ever smiled back.
I expected at a restaurant of this standard we would be introduced to each wine before it was poured, as the server did with each dish that was served.
When the spectacular cheese board was brought round, again we were just left to chose our own cheese, and no introduction to what we were picking was given, I ended up just pointing at cheeses that I recognised, when I would of really liked to try something different.
All in all the food was amazing but severely let down by the service we received, the waiters attending to us just seemed nervous and flustered.
We were the youngest people in the restaurant, whether they just thought we wouldn't care about what wine we were served I don't know, but all of us know our food and wines and the reason we booked into Le Gavroche was to sample the best of french wine and food, sadly I have no idea what wine we drank! It felt like they weren't taking us seriously, and trust me when you are willing to spend that much money on food, you have to be serious about food!
I loved the attention to detail, the ensurance that all the ladies had their chair pulled in and out when getting up to or sitting down at the table, escorting us to the toilet! Which was a little strange at first but we got used to it!
I have been to michelin star restaurants before and sadly I don't think I would revisit Le Gavroche, it felt very uncomfortable at some points, and I really feel that Michel Roux Jr was let down by the people serving us.
When you are paying that much for food you really want to get the most out of the experience and I feel we didn't.
I hope that perhaps we were just unlucky that night and this is not commonplace at Le Gavroche.
If you are thinking on booking into Le Gavroche, you will need to pay a £60 deposit each, which is taken from your final bill on the night.
For six people it all came to £980 minus the £360 deposit we paid a couple of months earlier, so on the night we paid roughtly £620, also our service charge for the table was £108!! Which we somewhat grudgingly paid. Perhaps we are crazy! You decide!!!
Monday, March 03, 2008
Overall rating 
Food 10 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
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